JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin Plans $14 Billion Stimulus as Pressure Mounts for Spending” – Bloomberg/ Eugenia Pismennaya, Anna Andrianova
“… Putin’s government … [reportedly] will roll out about 1 trillion rubles ($13.5 billion) of new spending …. Some of the money will … subsidiz[e] salaries of workers idled by isolation measures to fight the coronavirus …. The stimulus will be funded by increased borrowing, not Russia’s $165 billion rainy-day fund …. The central bank estimated that a government order for most Russians to work from home for the whole of April could knock 1.5% to 2% off growth this year, while the budget is being re-written to prepare for oil prices at $20 a barrel.”